Arab Press

بالشعب و للشعب
Saturday, Feb 22, 2025

US and UK are bottom of the pile in rankings of governments' handling of coronavirus pandemic

US and UK are bottom of the pile in rankings of governments' handling of coronavirus pandemic

Americans rank dead last - by a long way - among citizens of more than a dozen countries who were asked whether their nation is more united now than it was before the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey released Thursday.

And they come in a statistical joint last place with the British on whether their country has handled the pandemic well, the poll finds.

In the United States, fewer than two in 10 people (18%) said the country is more united now.

That's a full 21 percentage points below the next lowest-ranking countries, Germany and France, where just under four in 10 (39%) respondents expressed that opinion. Denmark had the highest percentage saying their country was more united now, with more than seven in 10 (72%) giving that answer.

As with so many questions these hyper-partisan days, there's a gigantic gap between Republican and Democratic views of whether the Trump administration has handled the pandemic well.

Three quarters (76%) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said the government has done a good job. Only one quarter (25%) of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents agree.

The findings come from a Pew Research Center survey of 14 advanced economies in North America, Europe and Asia. The Washington, DC-based think tank interviewed 14,276 adults by telephone from June 10 to August 3.


Role of politics

A clear majority of people across the 14 countries said their own nation had handled Covid-19 well: 73% agreed, while 27% disagreed.

But in the United Kingdom and the United States, the figures were much lower: 46% and 47% respectively. They're the only two countries where a minority of people said the government had done well. In every other country polled, most people said their government had done well, from Japan with 55% up to Denmark with 95%.

The United States is not the only country where support for the government's coronavirus response broke along partisan lines -- the Pew survey detected the same pattern in the UK and in Spain.

Those results show it's not a matter of whether you're on the left or the right of the political spectrum that predicts whether you think your government has done well. The US and UK have right-leaning governments, while Spain has a left-leaning one. In each country, people with the same political bent as the government tend to say it's done well in the crisis.

John Curtice, one of Britain's leading polling experts, said that phenomenon is well understood by social scientists.

"Generally speaking, it doesn't matter what you're asking: the government in power is more likely to be seen well by people who voted for it than people who didn't," said Curtice, a professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

But he pointed out that the findings do make it possible to compare how well each government is doing among its own supporters.

In Spain and the United States, about three-quarters of government supporters say their country has handled the coronavirus well - but in the UK, the figure is just over half.

Pew Research Center research associate Kat Devlin pointed out that not all countries polled had a political divide over views of the government response, "especially in countries with high levels of overall satisfaction with how their nation has dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak."

"In Denmark, currently led by the center-left Social Democrats, and in Australia, whose leader Scott Morrison belongs to the center-right Liberal Party of Australia, at least nine-in-ten adults on both the political left and political right believe their country has done well against the coronavirus," Devlin, one of the report authors, told CNN by email.

Economic confidence is also linked to the belief the government is doing well. In all 14 countries in the survey, people who said the current economic situation is good were more likely to say the government was doing a good job on coronavirus.

Again, the US is the most extreme example of the trend: There's a 44-point gap between those who say the current economic situation is bad but the government is handling the crisis well (34%) and those who say the economic situation is good and the government is handling the crisis well (78%).


Life changes

One possibly surprising area where the United States falls smack in the middle of the pack is on the question of whether more international cooperation would have reduced the number of coronavirus cases in their country. Across the whole 14-country survey, 59% of people said it would, while 36% said it would not. In the United States, 58% said more cooperation between countries would have helped and 37% said it would not.

Among other findings in the survey, women in every country are more likely than men to say their lives have changed because of the crisis, with a gap as high as 15 points in the United States, France and Sweden.

And perhaps most surprising of all, in Sweden - which famously put almost no restrictions in place to stop the spread of the virus - more than seven out of 10 people (71%) said their lives had changed a great deal as a result of the outbreak. That's the second highest percentage of any country in the survey, behind South Korea (81%), which put sweeping restrictions in place.

The Pew Research Center conducted nationally representative telephone surveys of adults in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, Australia, Japan and South Korea.

The study was conducted only in countries where nationally representative telephone surveys are feasible.

"Due to the coronavirus outbreak, face-to-face interviewing is not currently possible in many parts of the world that we have previously included in our research," report co-author Devlin said. "We have surveyed in 12 of these nations virtually every year since 2016, and they represent some of the world's largest economies and traditional allies of the US."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Arab Press
0:00
0:00
Close
The negotiation teams of Trump and Putin meet directly, establishing the groundwork for a significant advance.
Israeli Minister Urges Hamas to Surrender and Depart from Gaza.
Iran Considers Moving Its Capital Due to Urban Difficulties
Israel and Hamas Finalize Sixth Exchange of Hostages and Prisoners During Continuing Gaza Ceasefire
Leaders of BRICS to Gather in Rio de Janeiro for July Summit
Muhsin Hendricks, a trailblazing openly gay imam, was killed in South Africa.
Trump's special envoy for hostage affairs cautions Hamas against challenging Trump before Saturday's deadline.
Two British citizens apprehended in Iran amid escalating tensions.
Israel Issues Threat of Military Action as Hostage Negotiations with Hamas Continue
Hamas Coordinates Worldwide Solidarity Marches in Reaction to U.S. and Israeli Initiative
Israel Warns of Ending Gaza Ceasefire Due to Hostage Situation
King Abdullah II Dismisses US Proposal to Relocate Palestinians, Commits to Welcoming Gaza Children.
Lebanon Installs New Government with Hezbollah's Impact on Key Ministries
Report: Iran Attempted to Assassinate Trump During Election Campaign
U.S. Authorizes $7.4 Billion Arms Sale to Israel
Iran's Supreme Leader Rejects Nuclear Negotiations with the U.S.
UN Chief Denounces Trump's Gaza Plan, Cautions Against Ethnic Cleansing
Pressure Intensifies for a Free Trade Agreement between the UK and GCC in Light of Economic Difficulties
Israel to Withdraw from UN Human Rights Council Due to Accusations of Anti-Semitism
EU Reaffirms Gaza's Essential Role in Future Palestinian State Following Trump's Proposal
Iranian Currency Reaches All-Time Low Amid US 'Maximum Pressure' Initiative.
UN Reaffirms Ban on Deportation from Occupied Territories Amid US Gaza Proposal
Palestinians Fear Repeat of 'Nakba' Amid Ongoing Crisis in Gaza
UAE Aids in the Exchange of 300 Prisoners Between Russia and Ukraine
Egypt Seeks Global Backing for Two-State Solution Following US Proposal for Gaza Plan
Trump's Suggestion to 'Seize Control' of Gaza Represents a Significant Shift in US Policy
French President is the first EU leader to extend congratulations to the new Syrian President.
Tunisian President Appoints New Finance Minister Amid Economic Crisis
Trump Suggests U.S. 'Takeover' of Gaza, Prompting Global Worries
Trump's Proposal for Gaza Provokes Global Debate
President Trump Suggests Moving Gaza's Palestinian Population
Aga Khan IV, Spiritual Leader and Philanthropist, Dies at 88
Erdogan and Syria's Sharaa Talk About Collaboration to Counter Kurdish Militants
Trump Suggests U.S. Control of Gaza Strip Amid Ongoing Conflict
Trump Resumes 'Maximum Pressure' Strategy to Limit Iran's Oil Exports.
Ex-British Soldier Sentenced for Espionage on Behalf of Iran and Fleeing from Prison
Gazans in Egypt Reject Displacement, Struggle with Return to War-Torn Home
Queen Rania Urges Protection of Children’s Rights at Vatican Summit
Hamas Officials Ready to Begin Negotiations for Phase Two of Gaza Truce
Trump Expresses Caution Over Gaza Ceasefire as Netanyahu Visits Washington
Oman to Host 18th Indian Ocean Conference on Maritime Security and Trade
Emir of Kuwait Meets BlackRock CEO for Talks on Investment Opportunities
Queen Rania of Jordan Calls for Global Action on Children’s Rights at Vatican Summit
Egyptian President El-Sisi Invited for White House Meeting Following Jordanian King’s Visit
Queen Rania Calls for Protection of Children’s Rights at Vatican Summit
Israeli Military Operations Continue on Lebanon Border Amid Ceasefire Tensions
Israeli Hostage's Release Highlights Uncertainty Over Family's Fate
Israeli Military Operations Escalate in Southern Lebanon Amid Hezbollah Tensions
Zayed Award for Human Fraternity Announces 2025 Honorees
Kuwait Anticipates a 12% Increase in Budget Deficit for the 2025-2026 Fiscal Year
×